Overcoming A World View

Imagine the world's view of Egypt during the time of the great pharaohs. Everything about that civilization was unparalleled in size and majesty.


The king placed himself upon the same level as the gods.

When America went to war with Iraq, the first campaign was referred to as Shock and Awe. Why? Because you must first win the battle of the mind, and if your enemy is shocked and awed by you, there is very little chance he can overcome you. Should we mention David and Goliath here? The Israelites were awed by Goliath. David was not.

When an enemy of Pharaoh floated down the Nile into Egypt, he was greeted with statues greater than perhaps any creation found in any other culture in the world at that time.

This also had to be overcome by Israel, a people in captivity, before they could escape the clutches of Egypt. This had to be overcome before they would even 'consider' escape. Pharaoh was great. So how great were the signs that God performed through Moses? How mighty would they have had to be to reassure a beaten-down people? Note this: it took God Himself to free the people. The world view is hopelessness and impossibility. God had to do it, and He did.

As we float down the 'Nile' of life and we encounter the statues built by world-powers, are we able to see them through God's eyes, or are we awed by them?

Kingdom Perspective

It's easy to view the Kingdom of Heaven as an aquarium, to be looked into and observed. Our reality tends to not be the same as the reality inside the aquarium. Our reality is ugly, full of the trials of life and death. The reality inside the aquarium is different - it's pretty and ideological and somewhat untouchable.

Our perspective tends to flow from a head knowledge of what we see in the aquarium. We know that all things are possible in the aquarium. IF we try really hard, and pray really long, and fast all the time, then we might be able to stick our hand in the aquarium and pull something out - like healing, or a financial miracle, or fill in the blank with your own miraculous wish.

Our perspective is the problem.

If we live in the spirit as we are instructed (Rom 8:13, Gal 5:25) then we discover that we can 'enter' the aquarium. Then something funky-tastic happens... we find the real reality is the Kingdom reality - God's reality, and that we had been living in an aquarium all along. That which is unseen is far larger and far more potent than that which is seen. Our old reality seems to be more of a silly, abominable emulation rather than the truth, which is that all things are possible with God.

The beauty of this is that we no longer have to work so hard to pull a miraculous rabbit out of a divine hat. If we live within Kingdom reality, then we simply operate in it as well. God's reality becomes ours. With such a perspective, what can limit you?

What Really Matters

It's easy to get caught up in LIFE, isn't it?

This just occurred to me: if it really mattered, it would have been around 500 years ago. And if it really matters, it will be around in 500 years.

Start filtering!

My job: important, yes, but worth going 'postal' and shooting people over before turning the gun on myself? No.

My family: good one! Your little boy or little girl (or little wife) was known by God from the foundation of the earth. They will hopefully be known in 500 years as well. Check!

My church: if you are part of the Bride of Christ, His Body here on earth, then 'check', that passes the filter.

My house! There probably are a few homes that have stood 1000 years... but not many. For the sake of the filter, increase the increment to 5000 years and retest.

The sales numbers this month... my business meeting this morning... my headache... does the milkman spit in my milk... the dog ate my couch... the in-laws are coming to stay...

While God is in to the very details of my life, let that be a testimony of His love for me. It is not His will that I miss Kingdom opportunities because I am bent out of shape over my half-eaten couch.

Perspective

Can we have wrong-minded faith? Have we ever heard this statement… or perhaps even said it: I just KNEW he/she was the one for me! God told me He would provide and he/she was that provision! I just knew it!

Abraham ‘thought’ that Ishmael was the answer to God’s promise of an heir. He ‘knew’ it. He was sure of it, after all, he was 99 years old and all was well. Then God comes along and says “I’m about to make good on my word.” Abraham falls out. This does not negate the fact that Abraham had faith – and had believed God – that God had answered his prayer for an heir and had given him just such an heir, Ishmael. His faith was there, but he was wrong. However the faith of Abraham was attributed unto him as righteousness.

Abraham bargains with God for the fate of Sodom – for his nephew Lot lived there. God agreed that if even 10 righteous were found, He would spare the city. The next day, Abraham watches from a distance as smoke rises from Sodom. Abraham did not have the luxury of the scriptures to know the fate of his nephew. What was Abraham’s view of God’s mercy at that point? Not even 10.

The Price of Gold

Bazalel was given the gifts of craftsmenship - by God - to create the furniture of the tabernacle. He was not the only one, but he was the master of the bunch.

Exo 36:1-2
(1) And Bezaleel and Aholiab shall work with everyone wise of heart to whom Jehovah has given wisdom and intelligence, to know how to do every work of the service of the sanctuary, concerning all which Jehovah had commanded.
(2) And Moses called Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise-hearted man in whose heart Jehovah had put wisdom, even everyone whose heart stirred him up to come, to do the work.

One thing we can plainly see from the passage above is that these people were willing. As a result, God equipped them. That's a sermon, I'm sure, but that's not what I want to address.

Exo 37:24
(24) He made it of a talent of pure gold, and all the vessels of it.

While making just the lampstand, Bazalel (Bazaleel in the MKJV) used a 75lb block of pure gold. Today, gold is sitting at $925/ounce. Utilizing my meager math skills... Bazalel was working with a chunk of gold worth approximately 1.1 million dollars. But you see... he was doing God's work. When we do God's work, we are always dealing with the most precious materials in the universe. It doesn't always seem that way, does it?

Naturally, we know of the people who clean toilets for missionaries... and the Sister Teresa's of the world who give all they have to reach those who are destitute. What about them?

They lay up their treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust corrupt and where thieves do not steal. And since the very pavement is made of gold, we can bet their payment will not be in pavement, but rather something a million times more wonderful.